Why pay for a forum?

[everybodygoes 331]

Curious why no one has taken this site to a free forum hosting website? You get the same interaction so you can't make a pretty homepage with pics of fire engines, BFD, they are free!

[x635 4,066]

You get what you pay for when your have a "free" forum.

We've experimented with free software on other sites, such as SMF and phpBB, and it's not as powerful as this software. We actually started this forum using phpBB. Using our current software allows more features for our members, independence and "behind the scene" features which make this forum easy to administrate. We've used this forum for over 9 years, and it's been good to us. We have extensive customizations built into this software. And development of the "next generation" EMTBravo software is in the works. Besides, the major expense is the monthly hosting costs. We need the bandwith, speed, and storage space of a dedicated server

Most importantly, we have top of the line members, and they deserve a top of the line experience.

[everybodygoes 331]

But why do you need to spend money on things that are done for free for the 50k members of hondaaccord.net etc.